Tokyo ? Glued to a computer screen in his north Tokyo apartment, the stocky, part-time sushi delivery man spent weeks searching the recesses of the Internet. Going simply by the handle “Murata,” the 28-year-old surfed for online companions harboring his same dark interest: the desire to die.

He found what he was looking for on a host of new Japanese-language Web sites such as “Underground Suicide” and “Deadline.” Promising to supply most of the materials, he made arrangements to kill himself with two anonymous Internet friends on a mid-May afternoon. Face to face for the first time, the three young men drove to a tranquil mountain pass six hours north of Tokyo. They shared sleeping pills, and then — following detailed instructions posted on a Web site — set charcoal alight inside their car and died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The deaths of the three men marked only one incident in an extraordinary string of Internet suicides to hit Japan. During the past six months, police investigators said at least 32 people — mostly in their teens and twenties — have killed themselves nationwide after meeting strangers online. Many more young Japanese have entered into online suicide pacts, but either failed in their attempts or backed out at the last minute.

Psychiatrists and suicide experts are linking the phenomenon to a profound national identity crisis during Japan’s 13-year economic funk. Indeed, the Internet deaths come at a time when Japan is undergoing an alarming surge in its overall suicide rate — with financial problems cited as the top reason for despair.

The culture of suicide, encapsulated by the hara-kiri rite of the ancient samurai, is nothing new here. But even by Japanese standards, there has been a staggering jump in suicides, to 32,143 last year, compared with 21,346 in 1990, the beginning of Japan’s economic slide. The current suicide rate — 25.2 suicides per 100,000 people — is about double that of the United States.

The deaths have drawn attention to “how-to-die” Web sites accessible from schools, offices, subways, trains and cars through wireless connections on most cell phones.